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The one word that can best describe the future of squash in the country is “nostalgia”. It might seem a paradox, but, ironically, the one thing that is sure to take the sport ahead is the UAE Squash Rackets Association’s (SRA) members’ drive to restore the sport to its former glory; days that saw the popularity of the racquet sport leapfrog that of golf and even football.
Abdulaziz Al Bannai, president of the UAE SRA, rolls back the years as he recalls a time when squash flourished in the Emirates.
“The game has a long history in the country,” says the former Major General of Dubai Police.
“I think we first started playing squash in the early 1980s at the Police Officers Club in Dubai. We were a few colleagues trying to get to know the game better and it seemed like a lot of fun.
“We were so dedicated to squash that we’d play for long hours, six days a week. It’s not that it did not exist before 1980; people played squash even before we started. I remember the first squash court was built at the Al Ahli Club in Dubai and it was much earlier than when we got into the game.
“We loved it and wanted others to get a taste of it, so it actually started gaining pace after we built two squash courts at the Police headquarters. We tried to take the game out to the people and saw it was working. The game was new to people, but more and more began taking an interest and we could see the numbers rising, both in Dubai and across the country.”
With the sport gaining momentum and the number of players rising constantly, Al Bannai and his group of pioneers decided to step up
a gear, which resulted in the formation of the UAE SRA in the mid-1980s.
“Our goal was to put squash on the sporting map of the country and we knew we could do that if the sport was run professionally. We knew that committees within the SRA could take care of everything from promoting the sport, by organising tournaments, to doing administrative work like co-ordinating with sports bodies in the UAE and abroad.
“Everybody within the committee was very active then.
The young generation of players included Shaikh Ahmad Mohammad Hasher Al Maktoum, who later took up shooting and won gold at the Olympics in 2004.
“He has always been very sporty and his involvement with squash and becoming the UAE champion triggered national interest in the sport. It gave the younger generation a big push at the time and he still supports our activities.
“It was a joy to see the popularity of squash soar; to know that it was getting bigger than sports like golf, snooker, hockey and cricket, which didn’t even have a formal governing body. In three years’ time, we had a large number of local players register with us and we used to organise tournaments to increase their level of competitiveness.
Experienced hands
“We wanted to increase the quality of our players and the appointment of a professional coach would take care of that. We were looking for some of the big names when we met Abbas Khan who was among the top 20 players in the world at that time. He came on board with a lot of experience, which helped to bring a number of big names to the city.”
It may be consigned to history, but Dubai has played host to some of the top squash tournaments in the region in the early 1990s. Sadly, after stringing together a number of other successful events, the core committee of the UAE SRA began its descent into oblivion.
Today, active once again, the UAE SRA hopes to pick up from where it left and start at the grass roots, with schools being their primary target.
“Our main focus will be to develop the game at the national level. We don’t just want to focus on organising international events; we’ll do them from time to time as it is important to target the best to generate interest in anything, but we’ll also take the game to schools,where the future lies.
“We want to see more local players coming through to represent the UAE in international events. The summer and winter leagues have continued to exist and these have kept the sport’s growth alive in our absence.”
Al Bannai hopes to have the UAE SRA re-registered with the World Squash Federation and other regional governing bodies.
“We are in touch with the various federations and they are aware of what we are trying to do. We have to work together. If we want all the squash activities in the country to be under the umbrella of the UAE SRA, then we must be part of those bodies as well,” he said.
“I have spoken with Ibrahim Malik, secretary general of the Ministry for Youth and Sports Affairs, and we have their backing. We have to work hard, but I am confident we will be well-established this time.”
Tell you what… it could happen again.
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